Tom Dowd column: LeBron's no-win situation with Miami Heat

APLeBron James had an epic regular season en route to winning his third NBA MVP award, but his plans for winning multiple championships in Miami are currently in disarray.

It’s coming this afternoon, the latest, biggest test for the ongoing saga that is LeBron James and the Miami Heat, at least until the next crisis.

LeBron & the Heat, by the way, is absolutely the name of the ‘70s R&B cover band I’m putting together. Coming to a tiki bar near you this summer, as soon as I can find a lead singer who sounds just like Bobby Womack.

At this rate, LeBron himself might have an empty calendar by Memorial Day weekend. I wonder if the man can sing?

We know what he can do on a basketball court, and that’s everything. Everything that is, except win — literally and figuratively.

James just put up an epic season — 27.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 53 percent shooting — but the only thing that got any real notice in the moments the world wasn’t distracted by Linsanity were the late-game failures, and that’s the kind of thing that compounds itself exponentially.

It’s not judged in a vacuum or in the context of the game, but in the context of accumulating evidence.

Each miss, each failure to seize the moment, is combined with any others that came before. So even while winning his third MVP in four seasons and demonstrating himself the runaway best basketball player on the planet — there’s nobody in second place because the gap is too big — LeBron couldn’t win, figuratively. He couldn’t turn a skeptical public around.

That is largely his fault after the calamitous media strategy of his exit from Cleveland. From “The Decision” to the introductory rally in Miami – “not one, not two, not three” – James effectively turned the NBA fan base against himself, and then didn’t know what to do about it.

He was railed against for taking the easy way out and more than a few asserted he had surrendered any claim to being the greatest basketball player of all time by doing so.

I don’t think that last part mattered to him. Maybe not ever. Certainly not after trying to carry the Cavaliers around for a few years.

What LeBron was chasing was to be on the greatest team of all time. That was the goal. That was why he rattled off that count of championships just waiting to be grabbed. He honestly believed that what he had done was join with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and a roster to be named later to form a team for the ages, one that would be talked about with the Jordan Bulls and a couple of incarnations of the Celtics and Lakers.

It hasn’t worked out that way, at least not yet. Maybe it will, when the right parts are put around them.

But what we’re learning lately, what the Miami experience has helped demonstrate, is how much those extra parts really do matter.

It starts with superstars. That’s the rule, and it’s not wrong. Take the 2004 Pistons off the list and you’ll have to go back to the ‘70s to find an NBA champion that wasn’t fronted by an all-timer. They’re hard to find. That’s why the same teams keep winning over and over again.

So teams clear their cap room in desperate hopes of signing a savior, although they’re always curiously targeting guys who haven’t won where they are to come in and save them. I believe there’s an exhibit of that unfolding in midtown Manhattan right now.

When James and Bosh maneuvered their way to Miami two summers ago, that was supposed to be the tipping point. The stars were taking control of the league and setting a new template.

But it was the Chicago Bulls, with an MVP point guard in Derrick Rose and the league’s best defense, that put up the Eastern Conference’s best record the last two seasons.

It was Dirk Nowitzki, surrounded by a group that fit together better, humbling the Miami trio in the NBA Finals a year ago.

And right now it’s the San Antonio Spurs, given up as a faded contender after a first-round exit a year ago, who posted the West’s best record and seem as good a bet as anyone to win this year’s title.

Coaches get run out of this league left and right, saddled with bad teams or stars who call the shots, and it’s accepted that it’s a players league, fairly so.

But in the time since this Heat trio seemed to have pushed that concept to a new level, we’ve been reminded all over again that coaching matters. All you have to do is watch the work done by Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, Rick Carlisle in Dallas, Stan Van Gundy in Orlando, Doc Rivers with those proud champions in Boston.

It wasn’t that long ago that it looked like the road was clearing for the Heat. Dwight Howard was out and soon the Magic were done. Rose tore his ACL and away went the Bulls.

But now Miami has taken the injury hit of its own, losing Chris Bosh. Without him they’ve scored 75 points in each of the last two games and now they’re down 2-1 to the Pacers, playing Game 4 today in Indiana.

Bosh is out. Wade looks lost. James, averaging 27.6 points and 10.3 rebounds in the series, will be the story, win or lose.